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Clashing egos have marred the re-recording of the charity anthem
Do They Know It's Christmas?. Twenty years after the
original Band Aid, a new choir met in London on Sunday to
re-record the song to help those suffering in the Darfur
region of Sudan.

But a hissyfit has erupted between Justin Hawkins of the
Darkness and U2 frontman Bono over who gets to sing a pivotal line,
with the elder statesman winning out over the "young
upstart".

The weekend recording session included Coldplay's Chris
Martin, Jamelia, Ms Dynamite, Will Young, Rachel Stevens and
members of the bands Busted and Sugababes. Bono, Paul
McCartney, Dido and Robbie Williams making their contributions
ahead of time to the new version, dubbed Band Aid 20
after the original superstar project. On Sunday Hawkins
got to sing the most famous line from the charity hit: "And
tonight thank God it's them instead of you".

Then he boasted that his version was superior to Bono's in the
original.

"We both recorded the same line," Hawkins was quoted as saying.
"I did it better than him but his management kicked up a
stink."

Not to be outdone, Bono flew into London late Sunday night to
re-record the line himself, and producer Midge Ure decided his
is the one that will be used.

Bono, a high-profile development rights campaigner, said he sang
the line "more like a whisper" - in contrast to the original which
he likened to "Bruce Springsteen sitting on the toilet".

Hawkins's comments have cast a shadow over the do-good single,
attracting widespread media coverage in the British press on the
day it debuts on the radio.

"The day was supposed to be about pop stars giving their time
and talent to help Africa's starving. Sadly, no one seemed to have
told Justin Hawkins" wrote Matt Born in the Daily
Telegraph.

Malcolm Mackenzie, staff writer at Top of the Pops
magazine said: "It's ridiculous. You cannot compare Justin Hawkins
and Bono. One's a rock star, the other's a pretender, a karaoke
singer. Bono had to sing the line. Geldof had to give it to his
friend. I think the record's going to do really well but I don't
think it's going to be as good as the original because that
captured the moment."

Reviews of the single have been mixed. Alexis Petridis
wrote in the Guardian: "The cumulative effect
is nobody's idea of a great record, but provides a neat end of year
review, in much the same way as the original, heavy on the tinny
synthesizers and booming stadium rock drums, summed up the sound of
pop music in 1984."

Rachel Stevens arrives for the Band Aid 20 recording at Air Studios in London on Sunday.

Music journalist Robin Eggar told the Guardian: "The
second time I heard it on the radio this morning, it reduced me to
tears... The original had a lot of electronic pop and with the
bells it was almost a deliberate cod Christmas record. On this one
you can really hear the musicians actually playing. There are also
many more women involved. Joss Stone's voice at the end really cuts
through."

The 1984 Band Aid session - which also included Boy George,
George Michael, Sting, Phil Collins and the members of Duran Duran,
Bananarama and Spandau Ballet - was "a chaotic event imbued with
optimism, naivety and spontaneity", Sean O'Neill noted in the
Times. This time around, Bob Geldof wanted the young
singers to understand "the political significance of the song". He
showed them TV footage from 1984 of the Ethiopian famine,
introduced them to a woman who survived the disaster and stressed
that "art and culture could have a political impact."

But Jim White, in the Daily Telegraph, thought that the
new Band Aid ensemble could have benefited from "another Geldof" at
the helm.

"There is no one else out there chivvying their friends, writing
a new anthem, slamming their fist on the desk and telling viewers
to send in their effing money," he complained. In 1984, Geldof
"hoped he was going to change the world". In 2004, "the force of
that original effort" cannot be matched.

Joan Smith, in the Independent, despaired that "one of
the worst songs ever written and performed" had been revived.
Singing about Christmas "in the context of famine" was
inappropriate in 1984 and is even more insensitive now, she argued,
because Darfur is "notorious as the site of a savage religious and
ethnic conflict, prosecuted against the Christian ... population by
the Janjaweed (Muslim) militia."